Chapter 51: Mask off

[Warning! Mana Drain Active!]

[Mana: 11 -> 9]

A faint violet light flared along the blackened root fibers woven through the Gravewright’s skeletal arm.

’It’s pulling my mana,’ Rain realized, his eyes widening in horror as a wave of sudden, bone-deep fatigue washed over his limbs. ’It doesn’t just hit hard, it eats my resource directly through contact.’

The Gravewright’s right arm, now glowing with a dense, violet light, whipped around in a lightning-fast horizontal strike aimed straight for Rain’s temple.

Rain’s instincts screamed at him. He shoved off the creature’s chest with both palms, throwing himself backward onto the stone floorboards just as the horned hand whistled through the air where his head had been half a second prior. ℯℯ𝑙.

The displacement of air from the strike hit Rain’s face like a physical gust of wind, rattling the loose stone dust on the wall behind him.

Rain rolled three times across the wet floor, coming up onto one knee six yards away, his chest heaving, his right shoulder feeling numb and icy where the creature’s fingers had touched him.

’It took two points of mana in less than half a second,’ Rain thought, his teeth grinding together as he stared at the gaunt figure. ’I didn’t even cast a skill. It just touched me and stole it. And look at its arm.’

The Gravewright’s right arm was still pulsing with violet light, its movement visibly faster, sharper, and more aggressive than it had been when Rain first walked into the room.

The Gravewright advanced again, its gaunt, skeletal frame gliding across the concrete floor with unnerving smoothness.

’If I let it grab me again, I won’t have enough mana left to use Flash Step if I need it,’ Rain reasoned, his eyes tracking the creature’s long, needle-fingered hands. ’I can’t grapple it. I can’t try to overpower a frame built out of reinforced bone with raw weight. I have to avoid contact with those hands completely.’

The Gravewright closed the gap, its long right arm stabbing forward like a spear, its four horn fingers spread wide to catch Rain’s throat.

Rain stepped sideways, dodging the thrust by an inch, and drove his right fist into the creature’s exposed ribs.

His knuckles hit the bone plates with maximum force. It felt like punching a solid granite slab. The Gravewright barely flinched, its left hand instantly sweeping back to trap Rain’s striking arm.

The needle fingers brushed against Rain’s forearm.

’No.’

Rain didn’t wait. He didn’t try to pull his arm back manually.

’Flash Step.’

[Flash Step: Zero Drag activated]

[Mana: 9 -> 6]

The world around Rain lost all friction. The air resistance vanished, the ground beneath his boots felt like smooth ice, and his entire body accelerated backward in a blinding, blue-tinged blur. He crossed twelve feet of space in a fraction of a second, coming to a dead stop against the far wall of the junction room before the Gravewright’s fingers could lock around his wrist.

The creature’s hand snapped shut on empty air, its featureless face plate turning slowly toward Rain’s new position.

Rain leaned against the wall, clutching his chest, his breath coming in ragged, painful gasps.

’Six mana left,’ Rain thought, staring at the number. ’Two more use of Flash Step and I’m dry. If I run out, I can’t disengage. I’m stuck in melee with something that eats my mama every time it touches me.’

He looked at the Gravewright’s ribs where he had just landed his heaviest blow.

There was a faint, hairline fracture on the grey bone plate, but the blackened root fibers underneath were already shifting, weaving together like living wooden threads to reinforce the damaged calcium.

’It heals its frame,’ Rain realized, a cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. ’It uses the mana it steals from me to repair its own body. If I hit it and don’t destroy something that actually matters, it just absorbs the damage, takes my mana, and fixes itself.’

The Gravewright raised both arms, its needle fingers vibrating with a sharp, high-frequency hiss, and charged.

This time, it didn’t move with a slow, deliberate walk. Powered by the mana it had drained from Rain’s shoulder, its speed had doubled, its gaunt frame blurring across the junction room.

It reached Rain in less than a second, both long arms sweeping inward in a terrifying, criss-crossing scissors strike aimed at his throat.

Rain dropped flat onto his stomach, the four horn fingers passing so close to his back that they sliced clean through the fabric of his hoodie, leaving four shallow red lines across his skin.

[HP: 46 -> 41]

Rain rolled across the floor beneath the creature’s legs, coming up behind its heels. He reached out, grabbed a heavy, fallen concrete slab from the floor, and smashed it upward into the back of the Gravewright’s left knee joint.

The concrete slab shattered into dust, but the joint buckled. The Gravewright dropped to one knee, its gaunt frame tilting forward.

’Yes!!’

He leaped onto the creature’s back, wrapping his legs around its gaunt waist, and drove both of his hands into the vertical seam on its head plate, trying to pull the face seam open wide enough to reach whatever was underneath.

The moment his fingers touched the edge of the face plate, the dark, hollow cavity inside flared with intense violet light.

[Warning! Mana Drain Active!]

[Mana: 6 -> 4]

The cold vacuum hit his hands with double force.

Rain felt his vision darken at the edges. A sudden, crushing weakness flooded his shoulders, making his fingers tremble as his grip on the bone plate loosened.

’It’s draining me from the face too,’ Rain thought in a panic. ’The whole seam is like a drain vent.’

The Gravewright raised its long right arm, bent its elbow at an impossible, backward angle, and reached over its own shoulder to grab Rain by the hair.

Its horned fingers locked into Rain’s hair, pulling his head backward with terrifying, skeletal strength.

Rain felt his neck joint popping under the upward strain.

’If I stay on its back, it breaks my neck.’

Rain didn’t hesitate. He activated his skill for the second time in the fight.

’Flash Step.’

[Flash Step: Zero Drag activated]

[Mana: 4 -> 1]

The friction holding his body to the Gravewright’s back vanished entirely. Rain’s torso slid out of the creature’s grip like a wet stone, his entire frame blasting sideways through the air at high speed. He slammed hard into a rusted iron support pillar on the far side of the room, hitting the metal shoulder-first before sliding down into a pile of loose gravel.

[HP: 41 -> 32]

Rain lay on his side in the dust, coughing up a small fleck of blood. His entire body felt as if it had been beaten with iron rods. His left shoulder was completely numb, his right leg was trembling uncontrollably, and his vision was swimming with dark, purple spots.

’Thirty-two health,’ Rain thought, his voice in his head sounding distant, hollow, and weak. ’One mana left. That’s it. If anything goes wrong from here, I have nothing to pull me out of it.’

He looked across the room.

The Gravewright was rising back to its feet. The knee joint Rain had shattered was already being wrapped in fresh strands of blackened root fiber, the grey bone plates locking back into place with a dry click. It turned its smooth, featureless face toward Rain, the vertical seam splitting open once more to reveal the dark, hungry cavity inside.

It began advancing again, slow, steady, unhurried.

Rain sat in the dirt, leaning his back against the rusted iron pillar. He felt cold. A deep, penetrating chill was spreading outward from his chest, making his fingers twitch against the gravel.

’I can’t hurt its body with raw punches,’ Rain thought, turning the hard reality over in his mind. ’Every time I hit its torso, I just break my own knuckles against fiber that absorbs the impact.’

He watched the creature’s face seam vibrating in the dim light.

’That seam. That’s where the drain comes from. Everything runs through that one point.’

He looked down at his own right hand. His knuckles were torn, bleeding, and covered in concrete dust.

’One mana left. No more Flash Step. No more running.’

He pulled his right leg up, pressing his heel against the iron pillar behind him to anchor his body.

’So I don’t run.’